Well, still sick, still feel like crap. I haven't done anything in a few days. Last week I was feeling better on Friday so of course, I overdid it. Went shopping, it was raining. Gave the dogs a bath, did 5 loads of laundry, vacuumed the house and biked 1 1/2 hours in front of the fan. Felt sick again shortly after. Haven't done anything since. I feel like maybe I could bike tomorrrow. My Iron-Sherpa would flip if he heard me. I'm forbidden from riding or running until Monday. Mary removed my workouts for the rest of the week.
I sleep in tomorrow and take more meds...yum.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Jackie D - Week 14
Week 14 - starting Monday 18 December 2006
Wow I am really beginning to feel like an athlete. This was the second week with some breakthrough bike workouts and I even did one of them outside. Nearly Christmas and STILL riding outside!
On the biking side one of the other workouts was an hour 30 on the trainer. This was sooooooo boring - I still can’t even think about the times to come where it is likely to be 3 hours. It wasn’t helped this week by the fact that my youngest son was home sick so we put a kids movie on…..and it just wasn’t exciting enough to keep my attention.
I managed to make the masters swimming group both times this week. It is so hard to get the motivation to go swimming at 7 o’clock in the evening but once I am there I am fine. Mary has arranged a swim clinic in early January which I am looking forward to. I am kind of hoping someone will be able to pick something out from my stroke for me to work on and say “that will make a difference”. I’m a pretty competent swimmer and I can see myself improving but, it is very frustrating seeing these people, particularly men who could hardly swim a few months ago and now being as fast as I am.
Running was good this week too. I hauled my lazy…. away from the all too convenient canal towpath and went down Mendon Ponds park with the dog. It was beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The week ended with my long run with the group on Christmas eve morning. An hour 30mins which must be coming up for around the longest I have ever run. But, boy when you are wearing antlers they don’t half cause some wind resistence! I was doing about a quarter hour longer than most people today and one of the “team” turned round and started running with me when he saw I was going further alone. Thoughtful stuff like this just makes you feel warm and fuzzy and I realise what a wonderful group of people I have fallen in with with the Train-This! Team.
Next week the hours go WAY down. Mary says this is to let all the work “cook” and I will see the benefit of this rest in January. I trust her completely so will do as she says. However what with less exercise and yummy food around I am a bit concerned the scales are not going to be my friend this week.
I have just looked at a calendar and it is 30 WEEKS TO GO
Wow I am really beginning to feel like an athlete. This was the second week with some breakthrough bike workouts and I even did one of them outside. Nearly Christmas and STILL riding outside!
On the biking side one of the other workouts was an hour 30 on the trainer. This was sooooooo boring - I still can’t even think about the times to come where it is likely to be 3 hours. It wasn’t helped this week by the fact that my youngest son was home sick so we put a kids movie on…..and it just wasn’t exciting enough to keep my attention.
I managed to make the masters swimming group both times this week. It is so hard to get the motivation to go swimming at 7 o’clock in the evening but once I am there I am fine. Mary has arranged a swim clinic in early January which I am looking forward to. I am kind of hoping someone will be able to pick something out from my stroke for me to work on and say “that will make a difference”. I’m a pretty competent swimmer and I can see myself improving but, it is very frustrating seeing these people, particularly men who could hardly swim a few months ago and now being as fast as I am.
Running was good this week too. I hauled my lazy…. away from the all too convenient canal towpath and went down Mendon Ponds park with the dog. It was beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The week ended with my long run with the group on Christmas eve morning. An hour 30mins which must be coming up for around the longest I have ever run. But, boy when you are wearing antlers they don’t half cause some wind resistence! I was doing about a quarter hour longer than most people today and one of the “team” turned round and started running with me when he saw I was going further alone. Thoughtful stuff like this just makes you feel warm and fuzzy and I realise what a wonderful group of people I have fallen in with with the Train-This! Team.
Next week the hours go WAY down. Mary says this is to let all the work “cook” and I will see the benefit of this rest in January. I trust her completely so will do as she says. However what with less exercise and yummy food around I am a bit concerned the scales are not going to be my friend this week.
I have just looked at a calendar and it is 30 WEEKS TO GO
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Marian December,19th, 2006
Well, I feel like crap. I had a great Sunday morning run and a really good day yesterday. Woke up at 5:00am, swam 2000 yards, the ran 5 1/2 miles. Had a bit of a headache but not too bad. Then a sore throat, I can handle it. Then the upset stomach and nausea. I was done. Went to bed around 8:00pm and was out for the night. This morning, could barely see. The headache was so bad. Went to work and was sent home, something about scaring the clients away. Now I'm just dragging, stumbling through the house. in the back of my mind is the thought of tomorrows one hour bike ride. Rolando would kill me if he knew that's my big worry. That's probably why I did not wabt to stay home from work. If I'm well enough to stand in the surgery room for the morning, then I can bike tomorrow morning. I already heard about it last night, I went running in the morning yesterday in the rain, when I had already not been feeling good on Sunday night. But, there's only 214 days left...
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Jackie D - Week 13
Week 13 - starting Monday 11 December 2006
To tie in with another recovery week in 2 weeks time (between Christmas and New Year when we may go on holiday (vacation to you Americans)) I have been set a couple of weeks of more tough workouts with some Breakthrough stuff in them! Yippee, up to now, breakthrough workouts are things I have only read about and now I am considered ready to do them. Did I mention - Yippee.
Timing is funny though. Sometimes I can be impatient and I like to push myself (like on the group runs) but in the last couple of weeks I have been trying to mentally convince myself that what I need to do for Ironman training is low zone work……and then these weeks pop up.
So far this week I have done some funny bounding drills (I no longer get embarrassed when people pass as I am doing running drills - in fact some people have asked what I am doing!). Not quite got the hang of this yet I don’t think as I don’t feel too bunny like but can try again next week. But, even more exciting than that (can it be so?) because of the weather I am still riding OUTSIDE. I have 2 breakthrough bike rides this week - a hilly one which I did today and loved (zone 2 to 4) and another flat one going into zone 5a later in the week. My HRM seems to me more reliable (stable) on the bike. My long run goes up to 1 hour 20mins as well this week so I feel like I am really making progress.
To tie in with another recovery week in 2 weeks time (between Christmas and New Year when we may go on holiday (vacation to you Americans)) I have been set a couple of weeks of more tough workouts with some Breakthrough stuff in them! Yippee, up to now, breakthrough workouts are things I have only read about and now I am considered ready to do them. Did I mention - Yippee.
Timing is funny though. Sometimes I can be impatient and I like to push myself (like on the group runs) but in the last couple of weeks I have been trying to mentally convince myself that what I need to do for Ironman training is low zone work……and then these weeks pop up.
So far this week I have done some funny bounding drills (I no longer get embarrassed when people pass as I am doing running drills - in fact some people have asked what I am doing!). Not quite got the hang of this yet I don’t think as I don’t feel too bunny like but can try again next week. But, even more exciting than that (can it be so?) because of the weather I am still riding OUTSIDE. I have 2 breakthrough bike rides this week - a hilly one which I did today and loved (zone 2 to 4) and another flat one going into zone 5a later in the week. My HRM seems to me more reliable (stable) on the bike. My long run goes up to 1 hour 20mins as well this week so I feel like I am really making progress.
Jackie D - Weeks 11 & 12
Week 11- starting Monday 27 November 2006
Well my guests have left and whilst it was nice to have them here, scheduling training was rather more hectic, especially with the later nights up playing cribbage.
I started the week with a couple of pretty lazy days, just making sure I fitted my workouts in when I felt like it. I picked up the dog from the kennels on Monday and went for a lovely run around the trails of Mendon Ponds Park. It was T-shirt weather and the thermometer in my car said 62F!
I almost did my bike ride outside that day too but it was after lunch and I get really worried about whether I will make it back for the school bus if I get a flat - so I didn’t. I got on the indoor trainer and did my one-legged drills like a good girl! I tried a different approach to amusing myself on the trainer today and listened to a book on CD and that worked very well. Must remember to get some movies out for some of my indoor rides as well as I am bored with the kids movies and watching TV drives me nuts with all the adverts.
With the thanksgiving break over, most of the unhealthy food has now gone and that is a big relief. I have put on a few pounds and am going to make a big effort to lose those plus a few more. After all most athletes are lean and I want to be one! I just have to keep telling myself that eating this rubbish food is not going to help me in the Ironman. Back onto the Weightwatchers core plan for a week and see if that gets me back under control. Of course having the “diet starts tomorrow syndrome” meant I ate extra badly yesterday. DUH!
I felt like a “real athlete” this week ‘cos on the spur of the moment I decided to book up a Lactate Threshold and VO2 max test. I did these on Thursday and now have all my zones so will be able to take more notice of these instructions in my training plan. So far I have learnt several things
a) I need a new Heart Rate Monitor - mine is not very reliable until I get really sweaty (Father Christmas and Garmin may be able to help here)
b) I need a new Heart Rate Monitor - mine told me on my group run that I started off way over 200 bpm and settled in 170s. Since 175 is top of my zone 5 range then that can’t be possible as I sustained it for the hour and a quarter!
c) allowing for comments above, but taking it more generally I seem to have a tendency to work too hard on the run and not hard enough on the bike.
Week 12 - starting Monday 4 December 2006
Well Week 12 was another recovery week and I think the exercise hormones were playing up as I think I have been kind of grouchy. All I wanted to do was just go out and run but I couldn’t or I would mess my plan up. I kept telling myself I NEED this recovery week.
It was also the week that the Christmas parties seem to start. Food wise I was OK but the late nights really catch up with me…. In fact when it comes down to it I don’t really want late nights or hangovers anymore as I am enjoying my training too much (still!!!!!). However, I was a lazy bum on Sunday and couldn’t drag myself out of bed for the group run. I went later though and I don’t know how they managed as the way I went on the canal path was quite icy - I even turned round at one point and went round on the roads.
Well my guests have left and whilst it was nice to have them here, scheduling training was rather more hectic, especially with the later nights up playing cribbage.
I started the week with a couple of pretty lazy days, just making sure I fitted my workouts in when I felt like it. I picked up the dog from the kennels on Monday and went for a lovely run around the trails of Mendon Ponds Park. It was T-shirt weather and the thermometer in my car said 62F!
I almost did my bike ride outside that day too but it was after lunch and I get really worried about whether I will make it back for the school bus if I get a flat - so I didn’t. I got on the indoor trainer and did my one-legged drills like a good girl! I tried a different approach to amusing myself on the trainer today and listened to a book on CD and that worked very well. Must remember to get some movies out for some of my indoor rides as well as I am bored with the kids movies and watching TV drives me nuts with all the adverts.
With the thanksgiving break over, most of the unhealthy food has now gone and that is a big relief. I have put on a few pounds and am going to make a big effort to lose those plus a few more. After all most athletes are lean and I want to be one! I just have to keep telling myself that eating this rubbish food is not going to help me in the Ironman. Back onto the Weightwatchers core plan for a week and see if that gets me back under control. Of course having the “diet starts tomorrow syndrome” meant I ate extra badly yesterday. DUH!
I felt like a “real athlete” this week ‘cos on the spur of the moment I decided to book up a Lactate Threshold and VO2 max test. I did these on Thursday and now have all my zones so will be able to take more notice of these instructions in my training plan. So far I have learnt several things
a) I need a new Heart Rate Monitor - mine is not very reliable until I get really sweaty (Father Christmas and Garmin may be able to help here)
b) I need a new Heart Rate Monitor - mine told me on my group run that I started off way over 200 bpm and settled in 170s. Since 175 is top of my zone 5 range then that can’t be possible as I sustained it for the hour and a quarter!
c) allowing for comments above, but taking it more generally I seem to have a tendency to work too hard on the run and not hard enough on the bike.
Week 12 - starting Monday 4 December 2006
Well Week 12 was another recovery week and I think the exercise hormones were playing up as I think I have been kind of grouchy. All I wanted to do was just go out and run but I couldn’t or I would mess my plan up. I kept telling myself I NEED this recovery week.
It was also the week that the Christmas parties seem to start. Food wise I was OK but the late nights really catch up with me…. In fact when it comes down to it I don’t really want late nights or hangovers anymore as I am enjoying my training too much (still!!!!!). However, I was a lazy bum on Sunday and couldn’t drag myself out of bed for the group run. I went later though and I don’t know how they managed as the way I went on the canal path was quite icy - I even turned round at one point and went round on the roads.
Jackie D - Weeks 9 & 10
Weeks 9 & 10- starting Monday 13 November 2006
I have had a mini breakthrough on swimming this week! Not in the physical aspect (yet) but psychologically. Although I like swimming with my masters group, when I have to go alone it has really been something I just go and get through. This week I found that not only was I looking forward to my non- masters swimming workout but I really enjoyed it whilst doing it too! Like REALLY enjoyed it! Analysing this with hindsight I think this is because I am such a competent swimmer that I know I can do the distance and I know I can swim up and down for as long as required and so that keeps any motivation down. Well Mary’s workouts that have lots of stroke in them have turned that around. They are workouts that have butterfly in them and I am horrified to see that me, as a pretty good (though not fast) swimmer CAN’T do them. This may not sound very motivating but I can tell you it is! I now have something to aim for. Every time I go to the pool on my own I am going to make sure I do some fly and by this time next year I AM going to be able to do a 100m fly like written in some of these workouts. 25m I can do now (couldn’t 6 months ago!) and I have done 50m once but it wasn’t pretty at the end and I couldn’t do much after it!
My inlaws arrived on the 14th and stayed through to the 27th for the thanksgiving break. Lovely people as they are, they just have no clue about triathlons and the importance of consistent training etc. Consequently to minimise disruption to their visit and so I didn’t push it in their face all the time, for the most part where I could I got up and did my workouts early before they were up. This was hard as we were up playing cribbage way past my normal bed time so I got more and more tired as the days went on. I need my sleep - 8 hours at least and I wasn’t getting it.
I did have to walk to dog though so managed to squeeze some runs in doing that whilst they went shopping (I HATE shopping - I must be one of the few girls who do!). I know they think I am completely mad getting up to exercise. However, although I found it difficult a couple of times I am feeling very pleased with myself because I did everything on my schedule with a bit of juggling. Good came out of this because I started teaching myself that it is OK to juggle things around. I have been (and still am) a bit neurotic about doing the schedule as written so making myself do this I am sure has been good for me. Mary said at the last Ironman meeting not to worry about missing a workout but that doesn’t work with me!
We went up to Toronto for the weekend after Thanksgiving and having my weekends light on the training really helped me here. I got up early on the Friday and rode outside as soon as it was light (brrrr - cold) before we left on Friday. Saturday is my day off and then I got up early on Sunday for a run. The owner of the B and B we were staying at caught me on the way out of the door. Turns out she runs and she explained a lovely 10k route to me. I was a little nervous about running on my own in a city I didn’t know well but with her advice all that worry disappeared and I had a lovely time. I am not a city person and I can’t begin to explain the relief and joy it was to run that morning, heading out into the more spacious suburbs. I could have gone on forever!
I have had a mini breakthrough on swimming this week! Not in the physical aspect (yet) but psychologically. Although I like swimming with my masters group, when I have to go alone it has really been something I just go and get through. This week I found that not only was I looking forward to my non- masters swimming workout but I really enjoyed it whilst doing it too! Like REALLY enjoyed it! Analysing this with hindsight I think this is because I am such a competent swimmer that I know I can do the distance and I know I can swim up and down for as long as required and so that keeps any motivation down. Well Mary’s workouts that have lots of stroke in them have turned that around. They are workouts that have butterfly in them and I am horrified to see that me, as a pretty good (though not fast) swimmer CAN’T do them. This may not sound very motivating but I can tell you it is! I now have something to aim for. Every time I go to the pool on my own I am going to make sure I do some fly and by this time next year I AM going to be able to do a 100m fly like written in some of these workouts. 25m I can do now (couldn’t 6 months ago!) and I have done 50m once but it wasn’t pretty at the end and I couldn’t do much after it!
My inlaws arrived on the 14th and stayed through to the 27th for the thanksgiving break. Lovely people as they are, they just have no clue about triathlons and the importance of consistent training etc. Consequently to minimise disruption to their visit and so I didn’t push it in their face all the time, for the most part where I could I got up and did my workouts early before they were up. This was hard as we were up playing cribbage way past my normal bed time so I got more and more tired as the days went on. I need my sleep - 8 hours at least and I wasn’t getting it.
I did have to walk to dog though so managed to squeeze some runs in doing that whilst they went shopping (I HATE shopping - I must be one of the few girls who do!). I know they think I am completely mad getting up to exercise. However, although I found it difficult a couple of times I am feeling very pleased with myself because I did everything on my schedule with a bit of juggling. Good came out of this because I started teaching myself that it is OK to juggle things around. I have been (and still am) a bit neurotic about doing the schedule as written so making myself do this I am sure has been good for me. Mary said at the last Ironman meeting not to worry about missing a workout but that doesn’t work with me!
We went up to Toronto for the weekend after Thanksgiving and having my weekends light on the training really helped me here. I got up early on the Friday and rode outside as soon as it was light (brrrr - cold) before we left on Friday. Saturday is my day off and then I got up early on Sunday for a run. The owner of the B and B we were staying at caught me on the way out of the door. Turns out she runs and she explained a lovely 10k route to me. I was a little nervous about running on my own in a city I didn’t know well but with her advice all that worry disappeared and I had a lovely time. I am not a city person and I can’t begin to explain the relief and joy it was to run that morning, heading out into the more spacious suburbs. I could have gone on forever!
Jackie D - Week 8
Week 8- starting Monday 6 November 2006
Recovery week.
My arms have been sore for a few days after the mid week Total Body Conditioning class which is great as that means I am getting stronger.
I started feeling a bit unwell on Friday and that combined with the fact that the kids were off school (forgot to plan that into the workout schedule) meant I decided to push the gym session to Saturday. I love the psychological benefit of having lots of workouts at beginning of week with day off on weekends because it always means I can reschedule without messing up the week too much.
Well, on Saturday I didn’t feel too good either. In fact it is Saturday right now and I am struggling with myself on the guilt vs. rest argument. I am sure I have read in loads of articles that if the “illness” is above the neck it is OK to train but below the neck then rest. Well, I have a chest full of phlegm so think probably the latter for me. Will wait and see how I feel later maybe.
I started logging my eating this week, partly out of curiosity and partly because bad habits are beginning to sneak back in and I owe a few $’s to the kids for chocolate eating! I have noticed some useful things like how I eat rubbish stuff when I am tired and also how I snack badly in the evening (maybe related?). I am just at the stage of assimilating data at the moment before I give myself any ‘targets”. I know HOW to eat healthily - years of dieting and nutrition as part of my physiology degree took care of that but the practice is sometimes harder.
.. Final note for the week… I felt better by Saturday afternoon so went and did my gym session with no bad effects. That result meant I was happy to go on the group trail run on the Sunday morning which ended the training week for me.
I am really enjoying these group runs and we are not the only mad people out early on a Sunday morning in the rain. I tried Hammergel this morning just before the run and had no ill effects from that so am gaining confidence that I will be able to use gels. Chocolate flavour gets my vote so far.
Recovery week.
My arms have been sore for a few days after the mid week Total Body Conditioning class which is great as that means I am getting stronger.
I started feeling a bit unwell on Friday and that combined with the fact that the kids were off school (forgot to plan that into the workout schedule) meant I decided to push the gym session to Saturday. I love the psychological benefit of having lots of workouts at beginning of week with day off on weekends because it always means I can reschedule without messing up the week too much.
Well, on Saturday I didn’t feel too good either. In fact it is Saturday right now and I am struggling with myself on the guilt vs. rest argument. I am sure I have read in loads of articles that if the “illness” is above the neck it is OK to train but below the neck then rest. Well, I have a chest full of phlegm so think probably the latter for me. Will wait and see how I feel later maybe.
I started logging my eating this week, partly out of curiosity and partly because bad habits are beginning to sneak back in and I owe a few $’s to the kids for chocolate eating! I have noticed some useful things like how I eat rubbish stuff when I am tired and also how I snack badly in the evening (maybe related?). I am just at the stage of assimilating data at the moment before I give myself any ‘targets”. I know HOW to eat healthily - years of dieting and nutrition as part of my physiology degree took care of that but the practice is sometimes harder.
.. Final note for the week… I felt better by Saturday afternoon so went and did my gym session with no bad effects. That result meant I was happy to go on the group trail run on the Sunday morning which ended the training week for me.
I am really enjoying these group runs and we are not the only mad people out early on a Sunday morning in the rain. I tried Hammergel this morning just before the run and had no ill effects from that so am gaining confidence that I will be able to use gels. Chocolate flavour gets my vote so far.
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